The Calgary Flames were quick on the draw on Friday night, parlaying two clean faceoff wins into power-play goals as they opened a road trip with a win over the Florida Panthers.

Mark Giordano's power-play blast late in the second held up as the winner in the 2-1 victory.

Ales Kotalik opened the scoring late in the first with a power-play goal, his first marker in a Calgary uniform.

The Flames have won consecutive games for the first time in exactly a month and have points in five of the last six (3-1-2) after a marathon losing streak for much of January.

Calgary moved into a seventh place tie in the Western Conference with Nashville. The Flames continue their three-game road jaunt Saturday in Tampa Bay.

Kotalik is one of a half-dozen new forwards acquired by the club in recent days, but Calgary it has been defensive play that the Flames have allowed to hone against the likes of Carolina and Florida, two Southeast teams that have struggled to score.

"With the new guys, it was an understanding of what they had to do, and I thought they went out there and contributed," Flames coach Brent Sutter said. "It was a solid team win."

The game pitted two of the NHL's workhorse netminders, Miikka Kiprusoff of the Flames and Tomas Vokoun of Florida, against each other. Vokoun would be the busier, with Calgary holding a 40-13 shot advantage.

The Panthers displayed that inability to score again on Friday. While the shots weren't in their favour, they had some of the best scoring chances but could not bury them.

"We had 13 shots, and I think six were by defencemen," said Panthers coach Peter DeBoer. "We didn't win any puck battles. You'd think that when you've got some forwards that haven't scored in 14, 15, 16 games, they might want to get their noses dirty and try and get one. We weren't interested in that tonight."

The teams traded opportunities early. Niklas Hagman was stopped by Vokoun, while Florida forward Stephen Weiss just missed the right side of the net behind Kiprusoff.

Kiprusoff was tested at the side of the net later in the period by Kamil Kreps, a play in which forward Rostislav Olesz may have been too generous in passing to his teammate.

Vokoun, starting his 17th consecutive game, would stop Hagman in close and Jay Bouwmeester from the point late in the period.

Those two Flames would get assists — Hagman his first in a Calgary uniform — on Kotalik's sharp-angle goal on the power play with just nine seconds left in the first period. Kotalik's shot went off a Florida defenceman and past Vokoun.

"It doesn't matter [how it looks]; it still counts when it goes in," Kotalik said. "You create an opportunity around the net, and sometimes, it isn't pretty."

New addition Matt Stajan started the play with a faceoff win.

Cory Sarich, who took six penalty minutes in Calgary's last game, was in the box early in the second when Florida tied the game. With the puck bouncing wildly in the slot, Dennis Seidenberg swooped in from the point to one-time a shot high to the glove side past Kiprusoff.

Calgary would outshoot Florida 15-4 in the second but the Panthers would whiff on a pair of 2-on-1 plays that could have changed the momentum of the game.

Olesz missed a half-empty net on a setup from Michael Frolik, while Radek Dvorak shot just wide on a 2-on-1 short-handed opportunity.

Not long after the Dvorak miss, Calgary's Daymond Langkow won the draw cleanly to Ian White, who registered his second assist as a Flame by feeding Giordano for a one-timer at the 17:18 mark of the second.

Giordano has nine goals for the Flames.

Calgary outshot Florida 10-2 in the final period.

"Our forwards have to get grittier and have to realize they've got to pay a price to score in this league, and right now, we don't have enough guys that are interested in doing that," De Boer said.

Frolik would beat Kiprusoff with a shot early in the period, ringing it off the post.

With Sarich in the box yet again midway through the frame, Chris Higgins created a turnover for Calgary and tested Vokoun with a backhander.

Flames captain Jarome Iginla would take a Stajan pass and unleash a slapshot that made a giant thud sound on Vokoun's pad.

Florida has scored just 10 times in the last nine games.

It was the only meeting this season between the Flames and Panthers.

Another contest for Calgary on Saturday means they will play back-to-back games for the 12th time this season. They are 6-4-1 in the back end of consecutive games.

With files from The Associated Press